Krypton: Cameron Cuffe to Star as Superman's Gramps in Syfy Prequel

This is not your grandfather’s Superman. It is, however, Superman’s grandfather. (It’ll all make sense in a second.)

British up-and-comer Cameron Cuffe has landed the lead role in Krypton, Syfy’s in-the-works prequel series set two generations before Superman’s home planet went boom. Cuffe will play the Man of Steel’s granddad Seg-El, the scion of the once prosperous El family who is blessed with an intuitive brilliance for all things technical; he is now living in Krypton’s lowest caste after his family was stripped of its rank. Thus far, Syfy has only ordered a pilot for Krypton.

Comic fans are familiar with an older (and a bit grumpier) Seg from his appearance in the classic Starman No. 51, written by James Robinson with story by Robinson and David S. Goyer, who is executive producer/writer of Krypton. But Seg’s a good guy at any age; in the comics, he and son Jor-El (Superman’s father) helped Starman get away while other Kryptonians wanted to detain – and dissect – the Earthling.

The London-born Cuffe recently appeared in the Stephen Frears-directed feature Florence Foster Jenkins.